Turkish 'Microangelo' tells Istanbul's tale on miniature objects

Following his morning stroll around Istanbul’s medieval Galata tower, Hasan Kale walks into a bulk food market to examine the goods that will make up his next canvas.

“These are the ones I was looking for,” Kale says excitedly, as he scoops up a handful of pumpkin seeds.

The 57-year-old’s morning routine may not stand out at first glance, but his motive does. At home, once Kale pours his freshly bought pumpkin seeds on his table, the adventure begins.

A micro-artist renowned as Turkey’s Microangelo, a pun on Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo, Kale paints scenes from Istanbul on miniature objects or even food particles.

For him, no object is too small - from fig seeds to bottle caps, lentils to fishbone, Kale finds any object or food big enough to paint a scene from his hometown of Istanbul.

“Of course the only hindrance here is that you can’t hang it on your wall and (look at it) while you sip your coffee. You have to submerge in it,” Kale said.

Celebrating his 22nd year as a micro-artist, Kale said he has so far painted on 350 different objects, but that one of the biggest challenges of using food as a canvas is that his micropieces may not always last for long.

Nowadays, Kale said he was working on opening the world’s first micro objects museum to exhibit his tiny oeuvre.

“I fight to make them last forever ... I try to take them to the highest level and I want to display them in the world’s first and only museum of micro-objects that I want to open.”